Pain
by Angelhart79
Summary: Drabble written for KamiHaji-Week 2018. Prompt: Akura-ou Day.


**Pain**

AUTHOR: Angelhart  
GENRE: hurt/comfort  
STORY: drabble/one shot  
STATUS: complete  
RATING: K+  
DISCLAIMER: Kamisama Hajimemashita (Kamisama Kiss) ©2008 Julietta Suzuki/Hakusensha – Viz Media – TMS Entertainment  
All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

Written for KamiHaji-Week 2018. Prompt: Akura-ou Day.

* * *

Her footsteps were even softer than the rustling leaves. Yet even without moving his ears he could hear her. Careful slow steps as if she was hesitating to approach him. Perhaps his body language read 'unapproachable'. Even Mizuki hadn't pestered him at all today. Even Mikage had not voiced out any order or better said, request, to him. He was no shinshi at the moment. Free to do whatever he pleased. Nanami had not yet bestowed the commitment mark upon him with the soft touch of her lips.

"Tomoe?" her voice was soft as she called out to him. There was worry in the tone of it and he could even spot the emotion from her scent.

The sake bottle beside him was empty. His eyes were staring at the soft blue flame his fingers were toying with. The heat of it in his right palm strangely comforting. The flames hypnotizing.

 _Any moron can create a fire, but it takes one with far greater skill to quench it._

The demon had looked at him questionably and he had described him an ocean of foxfire. A burning hell that would consume everything.

Even the body of a demon… over and over again…

 _Look brother. I found your precious thing._

He still remembered the white row of teeth as they smirked at him the darkness. The scent of blood as he had entered the darkness of the cave. The scent of death.

Her scent.

All for his attention. Like a child. An ever hungry, insatiable child.

At that time, he could tell the demon was never going to stop. His craving for destruction never ending. And as he had looked upon the lifeless figure on the rocks, the rage inside of him set the whole area ablaze.

And as the blue flames consumed her body, the demon called Akura-ou dogded his attacks. And they danced in fire and blood.

 _You see, brother. I finally got you playing with me again._

No remorse. No emotion. Not even as he had taken the cut and burned up laughing body of the one he had called friend and brother up the mountain and called out to the gods.

Only one came to him. Aided him in the forever entrapment he had in store for his friend. And he had stared into the flames for a very long time to ensure that the demon would not rise again. But he wouldn't. Not while his body was stuck preparing the damage the fire dealt to it in repetition.

They had not persecuted him, decided that the curse already bestowed on him was punishment enough.

The curse she had released him from.

She, her life force being stolen by the same demon he had thrown into the pits of hell.

She sat beside him. Silently, and he found himself carefully sniffing, unnoticed.

The scent was there. Barely lingering, but still enough for him to make out. It would fade soon enough. Somehow, he found it strangely soothing.

"I think he will make a fine human." She turned her head and smiled at him.

He softened his gaze for her, but wasn't able to return that smile, just yet. Then in close proximity of him it was as if the scent increased and he raised his head to the night sky.

The laughter of a demon. Playful. Careless. Childish.

And as memories filled him, ones he enjoyed in his previous life, memories he would shield her from for he had been a different creature back then, one who was no different than the demon he was reminiscing, a smile slowly curled around the corners of his lips. "He will be a pain."

* * *

A/N: A very short little drabble written for Akura-ou Day. As the moderator of KamiHaji-Week, I noticed no posts (yet) for Akura-ou day and it kind of made me sad, for this special day kind of has become a recurring thing and I even have grown attached to it that I look forward to it each year XD. So in memory of the demon who learned to love in the end, I wrote this little fic.


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